The illustrative embodiments described in the present application are useful in systems including those for providing funds accounting and evidencing and more particularly are useful in systems including those for providing for accounting of postage and evidence of postage by printing postage indicia on an envelope using an ink jet printer.
Mailing machines including postage meters often employ an ink-jet printing unit for printing evidence of postage payment in the form of postage indicia. Systems for printing information on a mailing medium are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,550,994B2, issued Apr. 22, 2003 to Manduley.
The print head of an ink jet printing mechanism such as that in a mailing machine may become inoperable during the life of the printing mechanism. In such a situation, the print head would need to be replaced. If the print heads are removable, they are typically latched into a print head carriage. Many typical printing mechanism systems include latching mechanisms for latching a print head to a print carriage that use a large number of small parts. Using such a large number of small parts adds to the cost and complexity of the printing mechanism.
Additionally, such typical systems often do not adequately address that fact that the face of the print head and its surrounding edges may have accumulations of ink and paper dust on them. During the print head removal process, the debris can be transferred to the electrical connector contacts for the print head in the print carriage. Such debris could form an insulating barrier causing the new print head to malfunction. Furthermore, the typical latching mechanism is usually incorporated into the print carriage such that any malfunction or failure of the latching mechanism would require that a technician replace the entire print carriage.
Accordingly, the prior art does not provide a print head latching system that prevents or reduces debris accumulation. Furthermore, the prior art does not provide a print head latching system having a small number of parts that are incorporated into the print head.